U.S. cities plan for rising sea levels

Thursday

Apr 18, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 18, 2013 at 10:11 AM

WASHINGTON - Americans in coastal areas, particularly on the East and Gulf of Mexico coasts, will confront challenging questions in the coming years as leaders determine how to protect millions of people in the face of rising sea levels and more-intense storms.

WASHINGTON — Americans in coastal areas, particularly on the East and Gulf of Mexico coasts, will confront challenging questions in the coming years as leaders determine how to protect millions of people in the face of rising sea levels and more-intense storms.

Should cities rebuild the boardwalks in New Jersey shore towns? Should the government discourage people from rebuilding in areas now more vulnerable to flooding? How much would it cost to protect water and sewer systems, and subways and electrical substations from being inundated in the next storm?

Leaders from coastal communities along the East Coast gathered in New York yesterday to talk about the consequences of Hurricane Sandy, as well as how they will address future sea-level rising. The conference was sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit, nonpartisan science-advocacy group.

“What we really got a glimpse at was our collective future,” said Joe Vietri, who heads coastal and storm-risk management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is leading a comprehensive study of superstorm Sandy.

Rising sea levels caused primarily by global warming could worsen the effects of storms such as Sandy, particularly when it comes to storm surge. Since 1992, satellites have observed a 2.25-inch rise in global sea levels.

Just before Sandy, sea surface temperatures were about 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 30-year average for the time of year. Scientists who studied the storm determined that about 1 degree was likely a direct result of global warming.

With every degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 4 percent more moisture. As a result, Sandy was able to pull in more moisture, fueling a stronger storm and magnifying the amount of rainfall by as much as 5 to

10 percent compared with conditions more than 40 years ago.

Coupled with higher overall sea levels, the intense storm meant more water surging onshore and penetrating farther inland. The storm’s effects prompted officials in Wilmington, N.C., to look at vulnerabilities if seas rise up to 1 meter by the end of the century.

“People are listening, people are ready to take some actions,” said Phil Prete, a senior environmental planner for the city.

The officials spent less time discussing the cause of rapid sea-level rise: how to slow the carbon emissions that are heating up Earth and warming the oceans. Many public officials in coastal communities instead are focusing on what they say are the consequences of global warming.

They have no choice, said Kristin Jacobs, mayor of Broward County, Fla., where extreme tides during what was then Hurricane Sandy washed out portions of Fort Lauderdale’s beachfront highway.

“Almost all of us are living in very low-lying areas,” she said. “There are many lessons in south Florida already learned from multiple hurricanes.”